A fast-expanding embassy network and a clever use of its culture mean Brazil is making friends all around the world. Is this just an attempt to secure a seat
on the UN Security Council or an emerging nation trying to…

Brazil is a nation on the up and on the diplomatic stage it is being listened to as never before. Its soft-power push is being masterminded by diplomats working in the Oscar Niemeyer-designed Foreign Ministry in Brasilia…

For edition 86 of the Monocle Weekly we cross over to Brasília and talk to Raul Juste Lores, business and economics editor at Folha de São Paulo, about how President Dilma Rousseff is getting on after just over a month in…

São Paulo is South America's melting pot and financial powerhouse. It has the second biggest GDP per capita in the country - the first is Brasília, the seat of the government. The city is defined by its enormity: the tra…

President Dilma Rousseff prepares to address the nation on the unrest sweeping across Brazil – we hear from Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo on what happens next. We also wake up to the causes of the underreported…

The largest city to be created in the past 100 years is Brazil’s capital. That bold, modernist ideal extends to its military departments, shaped in swathes of creative concrete by architectural icon, Oscar Niemeyer.

Brazil may be the land of soccer and samba, but its status as a superpower is also fast moving beyond the realms of hypothesis into concrete reality. So will global politics soon be moving to a Latin rhythm?

Perhaps unfairly lumped in with Russia, India and China, Brazil has natural assets – sunny disposition, carnival attitude – that are peculiarly unquantifiable. And as Monocle’s trip to the country discovered, the next 10…

The BRIC nations – Brazil, Russia, India and China – a diplomatic group bound by little more than some similar economic constraints have not grown into the positive diplomatic force for change that was once envisioned, says…

There are few predictions one can make with confidence regarding the situation in Ukraine. But here is one: Russia’s fellow BRICs (Brazil, India and China) will have absolutely no influence over any diplomatic solution.

Like many other Brazilians I thought it wouldn’t be an easy task to follow in the steps of one of the most popular presidents Brazil ever had.

Like many other Brazilians I thought it wouldn’t be an easy task to follow in the steps of one of the most popular presidents Brazil ever had. Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva left power with almost 80 per cent approval ratings…

Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, is facing her first political crisis since taking office at the start of the year – and her critics believe it has not only highlighted Rousseff’s own weaknesses but also the continuing…

Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, is facing her first political crisis since taking office at the start of the year – and her critics believe it has not only highlighted Rousseff’s own weaknesses but also the continuing…

This weekend enjoy an artistic focus on Gibraltar in Tokyo, check out Brazil’s best photography in São Paulo, and listen up for the new album from Detroit producer Shigeto.

Belgian artist Francis Alÿs is based in Mexico but travels around the world – from London to Peru, Israel to Gibraltar – to document social and political realities of today. Gibraltar Focus features around 100 works insp…

Do too many diplomats and NGOs spoil a city? Brussels, Ottawa, Canberra and even DC have a lot to answer for in the dull stakes, but what’s a capital city to do? Become both an economic and administrative hub? Or simply…

Inspired by footage of police killing a bus hijacker, José Padilha’s ‘Elite Squad’ is the most viewed film in Brazil’s history (thanks to the country’s rampant piracy) and won the 2008 Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear.…